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April 2015

PS2 Site Evolution

Running the PS2 site has been like trying to hit a moving target. Over the years new releases and server terminations occurred on a monthly basis. The site has always struggled with its identity as a result. A great example is Star Wars Battlefront. We put focus on the game, and Gamespy went down. Running SWBF's dedicated server software in a LAN environment is complicated. To make a long story short, its not as straight forward and easy to rally a community around the game as it used to be. This situation has held true for many other games. Some of our favorites, like Monster Hunter, are no longer playable. When this happens I have to archive boards, move posts, and shift something else to take its place.

It has taken me a while to figure out what changes to make so years onward the site's identity remains intact and only gets better with time. Here is the gameplan to achieve this:

Notes on online game content:

Tribes Aerial Assault will be the primary PS2 online game here at the site. This is the easiest game to play online across all of onlineconsoles in terms of cost and technical setup. It is a PC classic from the golden age of PC gaming, and I consider it to be one of the top 3 FPS's of its era, alongside Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament.

Online Forever = OC's Standard for Online Game Focus. - OC supports and promotes the public release of server binaries so the users are in control of the future of any online game's functionality. Dedicated Game Forums will be reserved for Online Forever content only.

A note on the many DNS redirects and private servers: There have been a lot of private servers springing up abroad for the PS2, mostly for gamespy games. This started with Tony Hawk, and was expanded to support more titles. Users will be able to discuss this content in the General Online board, as well as how to access such services. However, the Game Organization forum will be reserved for "Online Forever" games, where either the server binaries are provided to the public, or LAN tunneling is possible.

Forum adjustments:

Star Wars Battlefront - This forum will be archived for now.

General Online - This forum will return to operation. A long while back I pulled down the board for maintenance. This board will be back up soon to talk about all general topics about PS2 online.

XBS Link Testing - This forum will be put up as a test board for troubleshooting and testing PS2 games over the tunneling application "XBS Link". This application is publically available and can be run independantly from a central authority.

Armored Core and TMBO - These forums will still exist, but will be temporarily migrated under a new category. They will be moved back to primary pending testing and research with XBS Link for tunneling compatibility. If server binaries become available for the TMBO master list, we can move TMBO up to being a focused game alongside TribesAA.

Specialty content for shmups and arcade games on PS2 with community hi-score rankings

Reviews - A new feature at OC will be a way for users to submit reviews and have them featured on the site. Any user can review any game (similar to gamefaqs).

PSP Forum - The PSP is basically a mini-PS2. It has had many ports to the platform from the PS2. A general board will be put up to discuss this platform.

Note: A goal at OC is to celebrate the hardware platforms and their game libraries just as much as the online functionality. So I am making an effort to provide enough content at the site so users can still interact and chat about these systems even if they aren't active in the online areas. Playing a PS2 game in an emulator? Great! Discuss in the Lounge with us :)

I hope everyone is as excited about these improvements as I am. These changes will be rolled out shortly after this announcement.

March 2015

Phantasy Star Online Servers

Onlineconsoles has been running closed door PSO servers for a while now, mostly for veterans of the site to play PSO. These servers were pretty much cut off from the public with strict access requirements in a desire to keep the experience LEGIT (cheat free). We are going to be opening up the servers to more players with easier access requirements.

The new access requirements to gain access to OC servers (DC and GC) will be as follows:

We are in the process of upgrading our server infrastructure across all consoles. Dreamcast PSO will be available in late spring when this work is closer to completion. The Dreamcast PSO forum will be accessible in the coming months as we prepare for these new changes.

GameCube PSO Episode 1 & 2 however is available to play right now if you are interested. Please inquire over at the Gamecube area of OC for more details.